Florida considers national reform effort

Florida could be joining a national high school reform program that stresses rigor and accountability but comes with bipartisan credentials. State education officials are considering signing on to the American Diploma Project, an effort led by Achieve Inc., a group started in 1996 by governors and business leaders and now headed by Michael Cohen, a former senior education official in the Clinton administration.

Cohen is slated to address the Florida Board of Education at a Monday workshop in Tallahassee. Since it kicked off in 2005, 32 states have joined Achieve's diploma project, which aims to better prepare high school students for college and the work place (which of course is something Florida ed officials have been talking about a lot). The project is "definitely something we're interested in," Department of Education spokesman Tom Butler told The Gradebook.

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Gradebook features education articles and insights on schools in Florida, focusing on Tampa Bay area schools. What's the latest from the Florida Department of Education? How is the FCAT being used to compare Florida schools? What's going on in Tampa Bay schools? Get an insider's view from the Times education reporting team.